SWM wrote:Zakharra wrote:
Yes, we know the Alignment plans to impose genetic uplift on the galaxy. And we know that they intend to set the Renaissance Factor up as the new Solarian League.
But that is NOT THE SAME as "conquering" the galaxy. People keep using the term "conquering" and saying that the Alignment intends to take over the galaxy by force. But that is not what the text says! Nowhere in the text does it say that the Alignment plans to conquer the galaxy by military force. Instead, the text implies that the goal is to gain control by political action, by advantageous use of the chaos, by working on people's fears, and by covert actions only where necessary. They want the Renaissance Factor to look like the good guys.
At the start, because they will need willing allies to join them and time to work on changing the attitude towards genetic modification, but if they do succeed in forming a successor to the SL and some systems don't want to join, then military force will likely be used to force the rest in. And anyone that attacks them will automatically be incorporated and 'purified' because only degenerate low-grades (non uplifted/modified humans) would dare resist the benevolent hand of the RF which only wants the best for humanity and to guide humanity in it's destiny. And who better to do the guiding than the MAlign alpha alines?
That is what YOU think will happen. But the text doesn't say that. You might be right, you might be wrong. But I wish you and the others who keep saying this would stop acting as if it was a known fact. There is
no text evidence that the Mesan Alignment intends to conquer the galaxy by military force.
As others have said, the MAign is building a fleet at Darius for offensive reasons, not defensive. They've been telling the slave population that it's for defensive reasons,l but the book acknowledges that is clearly a lie. The Malign wants the RF to rule all of human space,. Not just part of it, but all of it. Starting with the Solarian League. They want to impose their version of which direction the human race should go onto the human explored galaxy. That's going to require force because not all worlds, especially on the Verge, are going to want to join the new Solarian League. And when you have worlds/systems like Beowulf, Manticore and RoH who flat out reject (violently) the idea of genetic manipulation for anything but absolute necessity, conquest will be required.
All right, perhaps I am splitting hairs. But there is a reason I am being picky about this. People have been taking the statement "The Alignment is out to conquer the galaxy" as a given, and then using that as all the evidence they need that the Aligment will be sending in military forces to conquer planets. People have used this argument over and over again, and every time I call them on it, they simply point back to the statement that the Alignment is out to conquer the galaxy as their evidence. I'm trying to keep it straight in people's minds that the plan to take over the galaxy does not necessarily mean military conquest. All the evidence is that they are trying for a covert takeover, not overt military action. That is the distinction I am trying to make, because too many people have not seen the distinction.
Does that help explain my position? I do not think the Alignment plans to turn it into an overt war. And you still have not shown me evidence that it is.
By hook or by crook, conquest is in the menu. The RF intends to rule all of the SL and beyond. This will require military might to force those systems that refuse to join, into the fold.
You could even say Manticore is headed on the conquest route. Military action to smash the SL into pieces, then a vigorous use of economic, diplomatic or military action to make the pieces into neutrals at the least, allies and a part of the SEM/GA at the most. An example is the Talbot Quadrant. That area is looking like it's going to be a full part of the SEM. What are the odds that other SL systems won't be enticed to join the SEM. Conquest doesn't necessarily need to violent all the time. Economic conquest is just as valid and that seems to be the way the SEM is working. Binding them economically, then politically. But if they had to, military force would be used. And there's nothing to say at some point, the SEM might not be adverse to using force. Not all Manticore kings/queens will have treecats. As far as I know, that's not a requirement to be king/queen. So you could have an ambitious ruler and a government run by more amoral High Ridge types and there, you got a SEM that might be inclined to be militarily aggressive.
